Amadeus

You wouldn’t think the rivalry between two 19th century composers would make a movie of interest to anyone, save some highbrow classical music aficionados. Well, you’d be wrong. In the hands of the occasionally brilliant Miloš Forman (his other big success: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Amadeus is rightly considered among the best films of all time. No, really.

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It’s not often that a movie gets two nominations for Best Actor, for example. But Tom Hulce (Mozart) and F. Murray Abraham (Salieri) both were nominated. And you’d also expect that the two nominees would split the vote, allowing someone else to take the trophy. But in this case, Abraham won. Perhaps too many folks couldn’t get past remembering Hulce as playing Larry “Pinto” Kroger in Animal House. I know I couldn’t.

In addition to Best Actor, Amadeus received 10 other Oscar nominations, and won eight — including Best Picture. And yet it never made it into the top 5 films at the box office for any single week during its release. It was probably all those wigs. Even so, Amadeus received a ranking of 53 in the AFI list of 100 Years…100 Movies.